Friday, May 08, 2009

"Isla Fisher. Yes or no?"

This was the content of a text I just received, and, rather than give a meagre 160-character text back, I thought I'd blog about the lovely lady.

33 years old, pint-sized Isla Fisher is noticable for her large brown eyes and her stunning auburn hair. She is married to Borat/Ali G actor Sacha Baron Cohen and her dimiutive frame is accentuated when standing next to him in all his tallness, and the two make an adorable couple. Fisher could easily pass for someone half her age, such is her petiteness and innocent look. The two performances that I remember her best for are as psychotic Gloria Cleary in Wedding Crashers, whom Vince Vaughn misguidedly takes the virginity of - and then spends the rest of his time hiding from her, and as Becky Bloomwood in Confessions of a Shopaholic. The Shopholic novels are amongst my favourite in the chicklit genre, and I was extremely defensive when I first saw the trailer and saw how Americanized the film was, but, once I sat down and enjoyed the film with my friend in Bristol, I came to recognise that this was not so much a makeover as a complete reinvention of the Shopaholic franchise, and Fisher, a key part in that. The film takes Becky Bloomwood's hedonistic shopaholic to new levels, but, in the casting agents choosing Fisher as the lead, you could never totally hate Becky, no matter how selfish her actions are. Fisher is an absolute star in the film, exhibiting her comic timing wonderfully. Her delivery during the "Yes... I did google" is classic.

Isla Fisher has not really been tested with any overly-strenuous roles, but give her time. I like her, her bubbly charm and her screen persona very much.

And to close, I shall thank Paul Haine for the inspiration for this entry, and close with a rather lovely quote from her:"I love acting, love it. It's the greatest fun in the world. I've always had no trouble feeling extremely grateful. So even though, comparatively, I wasn't doing so well, I thought I was on top of the world."